Glen Quaich

Another day of initial frustration caused by unreported road closures; this time on the cross country route from Dunkeld to Amulree.

Seeing me halted at the red sign just at the A9 turn off a helpful gentleman coming the other way stopped to offer the benefit of his local knowledge. He suggested that the guys at the road works if spoken to nicely may let me through. The closure was seven miles on so if I got refused the already lengthy diversion via Aberfeldy would take even longer. I decided to try my luck. The road was indeed closed off and various trucks and diggers occupied the full road width about a hundred metres in to the section. I jumped out and approached a man working on a new manhole chamber and I asked as politely as possible if there was any chance of getting past. I was half expecting a gruff refusal but to my immense relief he told to shift some cones a crawl forward and wait about five minutes. Sooner than that it seemed the diggers shifted and I continued to site.

I don't think I have been to this part of Perthshire before. We were working roughly midway between Kenmore and Aberfeldy but a bit to the south. The hills are smooth and rounded and similar in character to Ben Chonzie at the top of Glen Turret. I don't have the text to hand but I recall that this hill, of all the Munros, was written about (unkindly in my view) with very little enthusiasm. The tone was, this is the Munro book so we must mention it, next hill.

I'm too tired to write much more. This is the view up Glen Quaich (Cup by the way) and at this point it seemed I was walking along very old walls and the remains of a once well engineered road. The feature is not marked on the OS map but perhaps someone will know the local history.